In her introduction to Encounters with Chinese Writers, Annie Dillard writes, “These are only glimpses, not portraits; their subject is not China, and not even entirely Chinese writers, but a few vivid, equivocal moments in the days of some of earth’s people in the twentieth century. What interests me here, and elsewhere, is the possibility for a purified nonfiction narration – a kind of Chekhovian storytelling which might illuminate the actual world with a delicate light – coupled with humor in the American tradition and no comment.”

Author and Fighting Words co-founder Roddy Doyle will visit the Bundoran Community Library on Monday, 11 Feb to recruit new volunteers for Fighting Words North West. All members of the public are invited.

Roddy will be here to celebrate the first full year of Fighting Words creative writing workshops in the North West. He will speak at the Bundoran Library from 2:00 to 3:30 on Monday.

In 2018, Fighting Words North West led creative-writing workshops for students from schools in Bundoran, Ballyshannon, Creevy, Killygordan, Kinlough, and Belleek. Fighting Words volunteers come from Donegal, Leitrim, and Sligo.

There is a relationship, a reciprocity between the words and the images, ideas, and emotions evoked by those words: the stronger that relationship, the stronger the work. To believe that you can achieve meaning or feeling without coherent, integrated patterning of the sounds, the rhythms, the sentence structures, the images, is like believing you can go for a walk without bones. — Ursula Le Guin, in Dancing at the Edge of the World

Fermanagh Writers next workshop is a poetry workshop with tutor, Monica Corish. Places are limited so if you wish to attend please email to register. The workshop is free and there is a £2.50 charge for refreshments.